My Best Friend's Best Friend
by Destiny1029
Summary: She walked back to the place where it was simple and their friendship had no malice, nor jealousy. She walked back to where she was the hero and Sakura was the side-kick. Naruto and Ino Centric


D: I need to just write for a while…

I don't own Naruto … Still can't help but think about chowder yelling "I'M NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND!"

Sakura has just been named lead Medic and Sasuke is back in the picture, so her two best friends should be really happy for her right?

* * *

My Best Friend's Best Friend

By Destiny1029

"Stupid men, stupid friend, stupid people, stupid job, STUPID!" a blonde girl declared as she moved down the black pavement. Her eyes were strained in aggravation and her hands were clenched in fists swinging beside her hips. Her nose was scrunched and her cheeks were beet red.

"Ugh, out of all the stupid things to get worked up about, really, who cares anyway, she deserves it. I mean really," Ino spoke to herself, eyes becoming filled with tears, "who cares!"

She stopped in mid-step and took a deep breath, closing her eyes to regain her center. She longed for a simpler time, a time where boys didn't matter, sensei's were still alive and things made a little more sense. Instantly she envisioned a hill side with flowers blooming and young girls running around carelessly. Her thoughts went back to the pink haired girl she should be happy for. She spat.

"I hate this place," Ino muttered with an eye twitching, regaining her center was not working.

* * *

Naruto walked somberly down the gravel road to his apartment, Sasuke was back and Sakura had been ignoring Naruto lately. He wrinkled his nose in concentration. Wasn't he supposed to be happy for the bastard? Wasn't he supposed to be helping him get back into the groove of things? Instead he just felt bitterness and jealousy for the boy. Only he could take Sakura away from him in one month of coming back.

'Damn it,' he thought, 'I should just let them be happy, I should just be okay with them and get used to the idea.' his stomach turned… 'what would that do to Sakura-Chan if Naruto were the reason Sasuke was ignoring her?'

He tilted his head back and looked at the sky, for once he wished he could rely on the perverted hermit for woman advice.

* * *

She beat me again… SHE beat ME again… "HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN!" Ino yelled at her mirror, tears were now streaming down her beautiful cheek bones dripping down her chin.

"I'm sorry Asuma-sensei, I'm just never good enough anymore," she muttered as she slouched over vanity, hands clutched and mangled in her hair. "She's got me beat."

She had promised herself she wouldn't act like a spoiled brat, though it is hard to keep composure when the realization hits you that you're inadequate in every way shape and form.

* * *

She really is everything he played her up to in his mind. She was the best medic-nin, she was the funniest girl, the best to hang out with, the only girl to ever have a ramen eating contest with, the only girl he could watch movies with… she was the only and the best girl he had ever had in his life. She was the only one he wanted in his life.

"She's happy, she's happy, she's happy," became his mantra for the next couple of weeks.

It was funny how this girl still had him wrapped around her little, black-gloved finger.

* * *

Ino was done; she needed to go somewhere she couldn't think about everything that was crashing down around her. It was weird looking in the mirror and feeling ashamed. It happened once, and that was after the chunnin exams, but since then she got stronger and better. She thought it was enough, and then… and then Asuma died.

She screamed in the pillow on her bed and then threw it roughly across the room. "Fuck this," she said to herself as she picked up a coat and ran down the steps.

Ino's mother looked at her strangely, "going somewhere dear?"

"A walk. A long one."

"Ino, you'll get it next year it's not a big deal," the older blonde said.

"Yea, see ya." Ino told her mother roughly as she walked out of the shop.

She allowed her feet to carry her to a place where the pink haired girl was nothing more than Ino's friend, and when Sakura could not become better than her. She walked back to the place where it was simple and their friendship had no malice, nor jealousy. She walked back to where she was the hero and Sakura was the side-kick.

* * *

His smile was the sun as always, Sakura had once told him that, he never stopped smiling after that.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled as she ran over to him giving him the normal meek smile she always gave the boy.

"Sakura-Chan! How are ya?"

"Great! Have you heard?"

"Yea,"

"Isn't it great! Everything's going perfect!" Sakura exclaimed. She looked so ridiculously happy, it made his heart race and his energy increase.

"I'm really happy for you Sakura-Chan," Naruto said, making sure his smile never faltered.

"Sasuke-kun was actually happy as well," Sakura said with a fit of giggles. Naruto's eyes flickered between hurt and happiness.

"Ah yea Sakura-Chan, imagine that, hey I got to go, I just wanted to tell you congratulations, I'll see you tomorrow at our normal meeting spot." Sakura looked at him oddly for a moment, he always stayed later.

"Yea, yea I'll see you then, bye…"

Naruto had no where to be, he just hated loving seeing her. He hated how he was not, by any means, over her. Then again it had only been one week since he found out. Instead he walked slowly down the gravel, trying to figure out where to go now. He had expected to just be happy in her company for the rest of the day.

No not today, he can't handle the disappointment today.

Why did the bastard always have to win?

His legs carried him involuntarily to somewhere where things were a bit more simple, where things were ok, when everyone's answer was a given, and it was one huge game.

* * *

Ino sat on the hill side twiddling her fingers around some flowers. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to go to a secluded place to clear your thoughts, it just got them more jumbled.

"Ino?"

Great. Someone else was here to watch her make a fool of herself. And of course it was Sakura's team mate. Great.

"What are you doing here?"

"Sitting."

"oh, I just come here to think," Naruto said, grin never escaping his face. Ass hole, one should never be this happy when someone is this sad.

"Yea, well I don't go into a coma when I sit here, dumbie," Ino scolded, "I'm a little less shallow than you choose to believe."

"Who said you were shallow?" Naruto asked as he sat down beside her. Ino was getting irritated.

"No one!"

"That was rhetorical… jeez I was just trying to get you to smile a bit, you look like someone just died." Naruto explained, still giving her a reassuring smile.

"You're not helping my mood," Ino told him, giving him a brief glare, she must look as awful as she feels if Naruto noticed something were wrong.

"Ah Ino, you know I'm joking around, you don't look bad, you're just spaced out," Naruto said, "Why are you here anyway?"

"It's away from people," Ino said simply, "it helps me to think."

"Me too, this hill over looks the training grounds where we had our first test as team 7, it helps me smile and simplify things again."

"Ha, that's funny, this is where Sakura and I sat when we were little and we made flower arrangements," she explained, giving a slight smile, "she was awful at it."

"I can imagine," Naruto said with a smile, "for being named after a flower she sure has no sense of arranging them."

"At least that's one thing I have on her," Ino muttered bitterly. Naruto turned his head towards the girl and frowned.

"So you're upset Sakura's going to get to Sasuke first?"

"NO! yes… maybe! No." Ino said annoyed. She was not upset about that, at least not that much. It was frustrating that was all… the big picture is what was really annoying.

Naruto gave a smirk Sasuke would have been proud of, "well that makes two of us."

"It's not just that, you wouldn't understand." Ino told him, starting to get up and leave, she felt like she was going to throw up.

"Try me, I can guarantee I understand." Naruto said to her back.

Ino was beyond frustrated, she swung back around, tears streaming down her long face, "REALLY? REALLY? Well then tell me how you would feel if you couldn't save your teacher but your best friend could have! Sakura could have saved Asuma sensei! She could have had him back here and living! That's why she's the lead medic-nin in the hospital and I came no where near the top, Asuma told me not to lose to Sakura," Ino's voice cracked, "in anything, and the truth is if I hadn't lost to her in the first place then he would still be alive!" Ino cried to Naruto, her body was shaking in fury.

"Ah, so the Sasuke thing just added onto it all," Naruto muttered mostly to himself. He looked over the hill once more, his smile had disappeared and he sat motionless for moments. Ino began to walk away when Naruto decided to speak once more.

"Ino, my master died as well, and I was having the same thoughts as you," Naruto told her, "I thought that if I had just been as strong as Sasuke then I could have done something, I could have saved him some how. But that's not the case. You were sent on that mission Ino, Sakura-Chan wasn't. Those are the facts, you did everything you could. You have no idea how Sakura-Chan would have dealt with that, you have no idea if Sakura-Chan could have saved him. Ino, all we can do is become stronger."

Ino's back was still facing him, but she let go of her clenched fist and let out a couple more sobs. She wiped her tears away and faced Naruto. She felt so vulnerable, but still really safe.

"Guilt is not helping you get better Ino, it's just making you feel like this."

"I know, but it sucks," her voice cracked, "not being the best, not being the one that can carry the person you love through life." Naruto winced at what she said. He understood that feeling.

Ino stood there in silence for a moment, looking over the hill side and took a deep breath, slightly remembering something that Naruto had said earlier.

"I'm guessing you're upset that Sasuke's back and he's going to steal your limelight?"

"Ha, you read me like a book." He replied, this time his grin was on full force.

"I tend to do that with love problems."

"I'm still in love with her, Ino."

"I know you are."

"Naruto, they're not getting married, they're not even dating, she probably is just trying to figure out where everyone stands in her life right now. I mean, you came back in the picture and you've become her whole world, and recently what used to be her whole world has returned. It's become complicated for her."

"Ha did she tell you that?"

"Not those exact words, just that she's confused."

"She'll probably pick the bastard."

"You think so?"

"He always wins," he told her after a moment of reflecting on his and Sasuke's past.

"Not always, he's here isn't he?" Ino pointed out with a grin to match Naruto's.

Naruto gave her a thumbs up, "that's very true. I just feel like I can't give her anymore, I've given her me entirely."

"Well, honestly, I'm pulling for you. You two are much cuter together," Ino informed him, grin widening.

"Thanks Ino," Naruto said with a grin, "up against the ice-cold bast… I mean bachelor I'm going to need all the help I can get." Ino smile fondly at the boy. "You know you really know exactly what to say, Sakura's really lucky to have you."

"No, she's really lucky to have _you_ as a friend," Ino told him after reflecting how he had shaped Sakura and gave her more confidence than she knew one could ever have in the first place. Ino hoped that he could pass that confidence onto her as well, and maybe Ino save herself from the guilt and no longer envy of her best friend.

* * *

D: Trying some different writings instead of my normal NaruSaku, though some form of NaruSaku ALWAYS ends up in my writings haha. I need to just write. I thought this idea was interesting so I wanted to share with everyone. Please review. I do love to hear what all of you think.


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